Big Bone
Lick is Boone County's unpolished gem or diamond in
the rough when it comes to history and prehistory.
It is Kentucky's own segue to our young nation's search
for its own natural history, identity, and pride.
It is a 12,000-plus year continuum of human activity
and occupation. It is the home of Pleistocene vertebrate
paleontology. It was commonly spoken of and referred
to in conversations of such elite leaders as Thomas
Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, George Washington,
and other founding fathers long before Washington
D.C. or Capitol Hill ever existed. It was the intended
destination in the wilderness for such adventurers
as Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, George Rogers
Clark, William Henry Harrison, Christopher Gist, and
numerous others. Even Daniel Boone and Simon Kenton
knew Big Bone Lick. It was the origin of the greatest
escape-from-Indian-captivity epic which ever took
place, repeated, handed down, and held dear by all
Kentuckians. It is the story of prehistoric and historic
animal and human life and subsistence. How could a
place like this be so significant, yet not be a Wonder
of the World or a National Heritage Site or an International
Heritage Site? Education! -Or lack there of. That's
how!

Ben Franklin

It is now time to focus on all these topics and tie
them all together so a clearer picture of Big Bone
Lick's role in the history of our nation, our state,
our country, and our world can be seen, and its complete
story understood. Just as there is a time continuum
depicting an evolving change in animal and human life
styles, forms, and subsistence strategies, there is
also a knowledge continuum depicting an evolving change
in science and philosophy. To explore and understand
Big Bone Lick, one must involve many disciplines----
natural history, general biology, paleontology, archaeology,
geology, mathematics, history, philosophy, and even
religion and political science. When all these pieces
are fitted together, then the essence of Big Bone
Lick comes to light.

In a nutshell, about 12,000-plus years ago, Pleistocene
mammals made their way into North America by way of
Beringia, a land mass between Asia and North America.
This land bridge was exposed when the ocean water
levels dropped as the two-mile thick glacier of that
time developed. As the megafauna (large animals) made
their way down to Big Bone, they were followed by
the Paleo Indians who depended on these animals for
their subsistence (food, clothing, and shelter.) The
animals were drawn to the lick for the salt (ancient
ocean water from another epoch trapped in the geologic
anomalies below, which communicated with the surface),
and the humans were drawn to the animals. So it continued,
millennium after millennium, and the bones of these
animals were deposited.

In the Hudson River valley in the summer of 1705,
a huge fist-sized tooth was found and after much study
and debate, was determined to be from a giant human
who existed the earth before Noah's great flood and
who was exterminated in the great deluge. The religious
leaders and antediluvianists thus propagated the "Claverack
Gyant" theory.

French explorers also made their own discoveries as
they continued to move westward. Notations by the
French as early as 1729 and again in 1739 and 1749
by French explorers and military campaigns were recorded.
Obviously there were humans before this who knew about
the bones. They just didn't or couldn't write about
them. Years passed and after much debate, conjecture,
and study, it became accepted that these teeth and
bones belonged to some type of elephant-like mammal-eventually
termed the American Incognitum. More debate about
it being carnivorous or herbivorous took additional
time.

Thomas
Jefferson

During all this time, young America had an identity
crisis. It had no ancient Roman or Greek history or
heritage. It had no ancient ruins or artifacts as
a source of national pride. Europe had a very exciting
ancient history. We did not. When Thomas Jefferson
entered the scene, however, It was Jefferson's relentless
ambition to prove to European philosophers and naturalists
that the animals and native humans of America were
not inferior to those of their continent. They were
indeed superior. This was the basis for writing his
Notes on the State of Virginia. The bones of the American
Incognitum, therefore, became a source and identity
of our national pride, and Big Bone Lick became famous
as the area for these highly treasured resources.
These explorations and discoveries were going on at
a time when the leading men of science worldwide did
not even consider the possibility of extinction occurring
in any species. Darwin's theory of evolution was a
long time away. All of this was going on years before
the first dinosaur bone or even the concept of dinosaurs
ever existed in this country. The leading world scientists
and naturalists were all aware of the Pleistocene
mammals.

Scientific fascination with Big Bone Lick has continued
uninterrupted to this day. Read about Big Bone; visit
it, ask questions; use the scientific method and learn
about Big Bone. Its historic and prehistoric significance
and importance are as big as its bones!